In the time that the Focus FCV was in the AutoBlogGreen garage, it was exposed to a number of people who have never seen it up close before. Several friends and neighbors were shown the car and given rides in it. Universally, everyone who rode in the Focus was impressed by the level of development of this car. The fact that basic behavior of the car was so "conventional" pleased people who are not engineers and no one objected to the start-up time. A number of engineers that I work with also tried out the car, and as professionals who are regularly exposed to prototype vehicles, they were also impressed by the level of refinement of this advanced vehicle.

Unfortunately, the Focus FCV was only in the AutoBlogGreen Garage for 24 hours, something that limited our testing opportunities. After taking my wife and son for a drive we shot some video and and a lot of photographs. I did manage to squeeze in some informal performance testing on a relatively long empty driveway. With my son operating the stopwatch in the right seat, I did some 0-30 mph and 0-50 mph runs. The torque of the electric motor provides good off the line response getting to 30 mph in an average of about 5 seconds. Getting to 50 mph took about 10 seconds.

This car is no Focus SVT but it's in the same ballpark as a base 2.0L automatic Focus. According to Ford engineer Mark Olance, the Ballard fuel cell can actually put out more power, but they limit it to provide the same overall performance as the standard Focus and also optimize the range. Speaking of range, Ford claims a range of about 175-225 miles on a tank of hydrogen. When I got the car, the gauge read a little more than 3/4 of tank, and when I returned it about 100 miles later it had a little under 1/4 tank, which, considering my acceleration runs, makes Ford's range claims plausible. Continue reading about the Focus FCV's performance after the jump.

When Ford engineer Mark Olance dropped the hydrogen Focus off at my office, we did a brief review of the vehicle's operation. He told me the biggest concern was the cold temperatures we're getting in Michigan at night right now. The Ballard 902 series fuel cell in this generation of Focus can be damaged if there is water in the cell that freezes. Mark warned me to keep the car in the garage overnight. The next generation of Ford fuel cell cars will no longer have this limitation.

The story continues after the jump.

At the recent opening of a new hydrogen filling station in Taylor, Michigan, Ford gave attendees the chance to get a brief drive in a hydrogen fuel cell powered Ford Focus. At the same event fuel cell programs chief engineer Greg Frenette agreed to let AutoBlogGreen have a longer evaluation with one of the prototype Focus FCVs. Recently, the call came that the car was ready, and a couple of hours later, a Ford engineer dropped off the car, worth about a million dollars, at my office. After a brief review of the operating procedures for starting and shutting down the car, the Focus was ready for evaluation.

The test car and most of the other Focus FCVs were built-up from pre-2004 Focus sedans. The cars look largely stock from the outside, but there are differences, most notably in the front. The air intake on the FCV is much larger than the stock Focus indicating a need for increased cooling for the electric drive motor and the power electronics.

The story continues after the jump

Following a recent post about a short drive in a prototype fuel cell powered Ford Focus, some questions were raised in the comments comparing Ford's technology with that of Honda on their FCX fuel cell concept. AutoBlogGreen posed some of these questions to Greg Frenette. Greg is the Chief Fuel Cell Programs Engineer at Ford.

A reminder, the fuel cell Focus has been on the road for almost two years and the fleet has accumulated over 300,000 miles so far. The Focus that is on the road right now is a first-generation, road-worthy fuel cell vehicle. A next generation car is currently under development and will include many advancements and lessons learned from this first generation car. ABG's questions, Greg's answers and more pics are after the jump